ED DONAHUE

The world’s worst nuclear disaster to date occurred at Chernobyl, in Kiev
on this day in 1986.. Thirty-one people died in the incident and thousands
more were exposed to radioactive material.

CARLATA BRADLEY

John Glenn made space history on this day in 1962 when he orbited
the Earth three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes, becoming the first
American to do so. He was aboard the Friendship 7 Mercury
capsule (above).

Here’s what John Glenn saw while orbiting the Earth. 

Friendship 7 capsule after splashdown.

The successful mission concluded with a splashdown and recovery
in the Atlantic Ocean, 800 miles southeast of Bermuda.

Sir Sidney Poitier is 92-years-old today.

Actor, director, and diplomat Sidney Poitier became the first
African American to win an Oscar after performing in Lilies
of the Field (1963). The films Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
(1967) To Sir, with Love (1967) and In the Heat of the Night
(1967), additionally bolstered his fame. The American Film
Institute called him one of the 25 Greatest Male Stars of All
Time in 1999.

1961

TV movie, 2001

The 9/11 memorial and ground zero today.

SANDY KOZEL

Mount Vesuvius erupted killing approximately 20,000 people on this
day in 79 AD. The cities of Pompeii, Stabiae and Herculaneum were buried in volcanic ash.

The above Photos of Plaster casts were made from actual victims trapped in the lava flows of the  ancient Roman city of Pompeii, Italy.      

        
       

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Florida City: Gary Davis cradles his chihuahua Boo Boo in front of
his mobile home in the Goldcoaster Mobile Home Park the morning
after Hurricane Andrew.

Washington, DC, was invaded by British forces that set fire to the
White House and Capitol on this day in 1814.

The United States Capitol depicted after the 1812 burning of WA. D.C.

An artists depiction of the White House ruins after the conflagration
of August 24, 1814.

The planet Pluto was reclassified as a "dwarf planet" by the
International Astronomical Union on this day in 2006. Pluto’s
status was changed due to the IAU’s new rules for an object
qualifying as a planet. Pluto met two of the three rules because
it orbits the sun and is large enough to assume a nearly round
shape. However, since Pluto has an oblong orbit and overlaps
the orbit of Neptune it disqualified Pluto as a planet.

On this day in 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly
across the U.S. non-stop. The trip from Los Angeles, CA to Newark,
NJ, took about 19 hours.

It was on this day in 1989.

Peter Edward Rose Sr. turned 77 in April.

(History) – An ammunition ship explodes while being loaded in Port Chicago, California, killing 332 people on this day in 1944. The United States’ World
War II military campaign in the Pacific was in full swing at the time. Lack of
training and poor procedures led to the disaster.

Port Chicago, about 30 miles north of San Francisco, was developed into a munitions facility when the Naval Ammunition Depot at Mare Island, CA,
could not fully supply the war effort.